Retail shopping is ubiquitous in industrialized countries, and especially in urban areas. A large component of costs associated with retail shopping includes the cost of labor and the cost of “shrink”. Shrink is when a retail establishment purchases an item of inventory, but cannot recoup the purchase price. Shrink can include, among other things, theft and vandalism.
Retail shopping provides numerous opportunities for dishonest shoppers to engage in theft. Shoppers can surreptitiously pocket items as they shop. In certain retail stores, individuals may wear items out of the stores.
In an effort to reduce labor costs, many retail stores, but especially conventional grocery stores, cashier manned checkout stations are being replaced with self-checkout stations or kiosks. A self-checkout station in most stores comprises a processor, a graphical user interface (GUI) display, a scanner, and a checkout table having a general weight or item sensor. A customer would scan a Universal Product Code (UPC) associated with an item being purchased. The scanner transmits the UPC in a digital format to the processor that looks up the item in a database associated with the store inventory. The processor causes the GUI to display the item and cost to the customer, for comparison, and provides the weight of the item being purchased to a summing engine. The summing engine adds the weight of the item to a running weight total. A comparator or a comparison engine compares the running weight total to the total or actual weight of the items on the checkout table. If the running weight and the total weight are different by a sufficient amount, the self-checkout station signals for an employee assistance. While considered a self-checkout station, a retail store typically provides an employee to monitor and assist with a number of self-checkout stations.
While generally functional, self-checkout stations provide numerous opportunities for theft. For example, the system may inadvertently allow for items to be placed in the bag without being scanned. Also, a customer may scan one item and deposit another in the bag of a similar weight, but higher price.
To aid against these nefarious activities, some retail outlets use camera imaging to facilitate monitoring of self-checkout stations. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,861 discloses an imaging system to inhibit theft at a self-checkout station. In particular, the UPC code is further identified with an image stored in the database. The imaging system captures one or more images of the product scanned and compares the stored image with the actual image. However, cameras can be obscured from a field of view and the actual product orientation may not correspond to the stored image of the product resulting in limited usefulness of the '861 patent. Another exemplary system is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,736. The '736 patent discloses using a video camera that detects objects moving in a field of view. The video camera sends the images to a processor that identifies which of the objects, if any, comprises a hand and uses a complex frame grabbing application to track movement pixel by pixel as the hand moves through the field of view. The '736 patent generally notes whether hands are moving in the correct direction with or without products and other hand movements that may indicate nefarious activities. One exemplary embodiment includes imaging a hand and product passing over a scan in one video frame and another video frame imaging the hand and the product at the bagging area placing the product in the bag. The next frames would show the hand empty moving in the opposite direction. Once again, however, the imaging system may be obscured and items may be moved to the bagging area outside the field of view.
As can be appreciated, however, the above technologies are deficient in one or more aspects. Thus, it is against this background that an improved self-checkout station anti-theft device is provided. Moreover, the anti-theft device should be employable in multiple locations in a store as an anti-theft device at a checkout (whether a cashier or self-checkout) is the last line of defense in identifying nefarious behavior.